Judge rejects ACLU demand for $231,000 from Kim Davis

A federal magistrate has rejected the ACLU’s demand for $231,000 in legal fees from Kim Davis, the famous county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

A federal judge sent her to jail for six days for her refusal, but her case ended when she got exactly what she asked for: the removal of her name from marriage licenses.

Despite the fact the same-sex duos in the case failed to obtain what they wanted, a permanent court order binding Davis’ actions, they still claimed to be the prevailing party and demanded the fees from Davis.

But Magistrate Edward B. Atkins wrote in an order Monday that the ACLU and its clients were not the winners, so they couldn’t claim the fees.

In such cases, U.S. law provides that the winners in the case have their fees paid by the losers.

Liberty Counsel represented Davis in her case against the state’s governor and legislature, which eventually fulfilled Davis’ request through a law that removed the names of country clerks from marriage licenses.

The magistrate found “the plaintiffs are not ‘prevailing parties’ … and are therefore not entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees.”

Judge David Bunning ordered Davis to jail and threatened her co-workers into agreeing to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples after the Supreme Court, in a decision the dissenting minority described as untethered to the U.S. Constitution created same-sex “marriage.” The U.S. Constitution doesn’t mention it, and the same court only months earlier had ruled that states, not the federal government, control the regulations for marriage.

Two of the high court justices were urged to recuse themselves, Ruth Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, because they had publicly advocated for same-sex “marriage” while the case was pending.

However, they refused to comply with what critics contended were ordinary ethics rules.

Later, a new Kentucky governor, Matt Bevin, signed an executive order allowing Davis not to use her name for such documents. The legislature later made it law.

“The ACLU and others still want to punish Kim Davis for daring to take a stand for religious liberty,” said Horatio Mihet, Liberty Counsel’s vice president of legal affairs and chief litigation counsel. “But today the court recognized that the ACLU does not deserve to get paid for its bullying. Kim Davis never violated her conscience, and she still has her job and her freedom. That is a win for Kim and for all Americans who want to perform public service without being forced to compromise their religious liberties.”

After the Supreme Court created same-sex “marriage” – against the wishes of Americans in a majority of states – Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses to anyone to anyone to avoid issuing them to same-sex couples, which would violate her Christian beliefs.

She requested a minor religious accommodation of having her name removed from the marriage licenses, but then-Gov. Steve Beshear, a prominent Democrat, refused. When Davis refused an order by Bunning to issue the licenses, the judge sent her to jail.

Atkins’ recommended disposition and order in the U.S. District court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Northern Division, Ashland, said the plaintiffs sought a permanent order to force Davis to issue the licenses and class-action status.

But those requests ended up being moot when the state law was changed.

“Clearly, the court never granted the full and final relief that was sought,” he wrote.